‘Sourcing the Archive: new approaches to materialising textile history’

Satoru Aoyama

7-8 NOVEMBER 2013

CALL FOR PAPERS

Keynote Speakers:

Professor Carolyn Steedman, University of Warwick

Dr Solveigh Goett, Textile Artist and Researcher

Textiles attract through their sensory appeal – their texture and weight, smell, malleability, sound, retention of owners’ and makers’ bodily traces – factors only fully appreciable through physical engagement with them. Yet many, especially modern, historians have relied – often of necessity – on documentary or visual sources to research textile history. The 2013 Pasold Conference, jointly organised by Goldsmiths Department of History and the Goldsmiths Textile Collection will explore how tacit knowledge of material and affective relationships can be traced through the words we think with (Lakoff & Johnson 1999, 2003) with a view to asking: how can our engagement with textile sources extend our knowledge of the past? What can textiles communicate that other sources cannot? Building on a range of recent events which encourage engagement with the materiality of textiles, textile archives and/or the relationship between textiles and other historical sources the Conference will seek to identify textiles’ unique contribution to the advancement of historical understanding and practices.

We welcome proposals for 20-minute papers/presentations from historians, practitioners, writers and scholars in any discipline and concerned with any period or region. Proposals from postgraduate students are warmly welcome. Themes for papers may include, but are not limited to the following and we encourage creative interpretation of the overall conference theme:

· The unique value of textiles as historical sources.

· The relationship between physical and other (documentary, visual, digital) textile sources.

· The nature and purpose of physical textile archives in a digital age.

· The extent to which the value of physical engagement with textiles can be recovered when the textiles no longer exist.

Goldsmiths’ acclaimed history of innovative work in the textile arts will be celebrated during the Conference with a special exhibition of material from the Goldsmiths’ Textile Collection, ‘an eclectic, international treasure trove of textiles’. There will also be an optional afternoon of object handling in the Collection to generate discussion around new ways of writing history.

Interpretation and Care of Fine Needlework in Museums and Historic Houses

Wednesday 12 June 2013

University of Wolverhampton

Embellished textiles such as embroidery, lace, netting, fringing and tassels have long been used to add beauty and value to clothing and household furnishings. Great skill and time were required, and the work often included expensive materials such as pearls, sequins, silver and gold. Textile items are particularly prone to the effects of time and embellished items rarely survive in a pristine state that verifies their original status and value. This workshop seeks to explore the interpretation, care and conservation of such artefacts in museums and historic houses. Possible topics might include:

The material culture and history of embellished textiles in museums and historic houses

Delicate textiles on open display

Interpreting needlework skills

Gendered production and use

The relationship between embellished textiles and the heritage setting